Breadcrumb Navigation [Page Hierarchy]

Section Navigation

Intensive care

Overview

Intensive care at the Royal Free Hospital

The ICU (intensive care unit) at the Royal Free Hospital comprises 34 intensive care beds. Over 1,500 patients are admitted to ICU each year. The ICU beds are located in the three intensive therapy wards situated on the 4th floor of the hospital. The newly opened ICU 4 is comprised of three wings: south, east and west. The departmental offices are located on the 4th floor behind ICU 4 West. These can be accessed from the ground floor via the lift near the heart attack centre and radiotherapy.

The Royal Free Hospital is a major tertiary referral centre for medical and surgical specialties. The critical care directorate provides services to support all our in-patient specialities including hepatobiliary surgery, hepatology, complex vascular surgery, infectious diseases and haematology. The Royal Free Hospital has an active organ transplant programme and the department of intensive care medicine cares for more than 70 liver transplant recipients each year.

Each intensive care unit has 24-hour consultant cover by a specialist in intensive care medicine and all care is consultant led. Each consultant is supported by a team of junior grade doctors who are at different stages of their training. A senior nurse leads each shift on each unit.

We have strict infection control policies and our unit infection acquisition rates are low. All visitors, whether clinical or non-clinical, will adhere to the widely publicised guidance.